


take a chill pill

by momogsanders



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, angst??? but like it's fiiiine, but not too much, kinda already established as a couple before the start heehee, post-catra-redemption gayness, rated teen for recreational drug use but not explicit??, reference to blood, reference to gunshot wound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 04:44:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20383891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momogsanders/pseuds/momogsanders
Summary: Adora needs to take a chill pill. Catra finds a way for her to do just that, but the high doesn't last forever.





	take a chill pill

Adora's eyes are like, really pretty. Catra never really realised that. They're so pretty. Why hadn't she ever told her before?

"You have... whatsitcalled... nice eyes. Pretty..."

Adora was jerking with chuckles and had a bleary grin on her face. "Ha ha... thanks."

Catra decided she needed a blank canvas, so she turned around and lay down with her head resting in Adora's lap. The ceiling was still pink as ever, but Catra would use it to distinguish the dragons and clouds and rainbows shooting across her vision. "Look," she whispered, pointing upwards.

Adora followed her finger and Catra saw her jaw drop. "Heh, cool."

She giggled when Adora looked down at her again, and brought the finger back down to press its pad to the blonde's forehead. Adora's eyes tried to follow it, and Catra let out a childish giggle when she went cross-eyed. They erupted into a fit of laughter, and the dragons writhed in the pink sky. Catra sat up close to Adora.

She wondered how she could have survived with those grey eyes staring at her from inches away in the utility closets when they would skip modules back in the Fright Zone. The lights were always dim, so they didn't have the shine they did now, but their colour and shape was enough.

Catra leaned in and kissed her firmly, kept doing so until Adora gave way and lay back. She followed her down, all-fours on top of her, counting herself very lucky she heard about this escape.

_  
ONE WEEK AGO  
Adora's knuckles whitened around the chair arms. Catra listened to her speak, and heard the tired shake and croak of her voice. Her back was straight, as was her face._

_When she had finished, Catra tuned out and ran a finger over the back of her whitened hand, pleased to find blood returning to the veins below Adora's skin as she loosened her grip. Catra wished it was appropriate for her to grab Adora's face and kiss her during a meeting. The most she could do now was trace a faint finger across the skin and hope she would look her in the eyes instead of at the middle of the table. Just for a second. Just to know she was still there._

_Catra was given a sign when Adora turned over her hand and she could intertwine their fingers slowly as to not attract attention. Adora's hand weakly closed around her own, and Catra still looked up to find her concentrated on everything else._

_"Hey." She almost had to jog to keep up with Adora's long and hasty strides. "Are you doing okay?"_

_Adora seemed to slow a little in body and mind when Catra spoke. "Yeah. There's a lot going on. But it's fine. Nothing I haven't handled before."_

_Catra frowned at the impersonal tone of her voice. She sounded as if she were talking to a force captain, Shadow Weaver, even, back at the Horde. Catra realised it couldn't be good if this place could make her that tense. It was meant to be better for them._

_Catra grabbed her wrist and stopped them in the empty hallway and wrestled the stack of scrolls from Adora's arms. She didn't resist._

_"You need a break."_

_Adora looked her in the eye for the first time in a while, took a deep breath. "I can't -"_

_"No. You've been working all day for the last two weeks. You can take an afternoon for yourself."_

_"But they're gonna need me, and I have to help them find the formulas and blueprints in all those scrolls, and what if we get attacked -"_

_"They'll be fine for a few hours. I need you to take a break. For me."_

_This seemed to break through to her. She gathered Catra into her arms, and Catra finally felt a little pressure in her fingertips where they touched her back. Catra rubbed the back of Adora's neck with her thumb. "It's okay. I'm proud of you for working so hard. Now, come. I think I know a way to chill you out."  
_

Catra sat up when she heard voices outside their door. The effects had worn off enough for her to have an idea what might be going on. "Oh, damnit."

"Adora, Catra, you in there?" Glimmer said. "Why am I even asking? I could probably hazard a guess as to what you're doing, too."

"No, we're not here," Adora said loudly. Catra giggled, attempting to keep quiet.

"Okaaay. I guess I'll have to eat these jam rolls by myself," Glimmer shouted.

"Alright! Maybe we are in here!" Adora shouted in a panic.

Catra was nearly thrown off as Adora scrambled up to open the door. Catra wasn't quick enough to tell her she hadn't yet put her shirt back on.

"Oh my god. You're lucky it's just me and Bow out here." Glimmer covered her eyes when Adora opened the door wider. "Are you decent, Catra?"

"Yes. You're welcome."

"Okay," she said, taking her hand away. "We've got a problem. They're massacring a village west of here, and we're short on troops because of the last one. We need She-Ra."

Catra crossed her arms.

"And the legendary Catra, of course," Bow added.

Glimmer made a scrunchy face. "Yeah. Sure. Get changed."

She could barely breathe for the smoke blanketing the paddock. Guns were firing everywhere she turned. It gave her a sensory overload. So she tried to find a pinpoint of colour in the bleakness.

An enemy soldier charged toward her, pointing their gun. Catra thrashed her whip and wished for true aim. The young soldier's weapon was suddenly flung to the ground. Vines burst from the dirt below their feet and trapped their feet. Catra looked up again, and saw a blink of gold, then a flash of red. She-Ra.

And then she heard it: a buzzing, whirring shot zipping from the distance. She watched She-Ra register the sound just as the shot crashed into her. It sent up a cloud of dirt around Adora, and Catra started running. Her ears were ringing, but she heard herself scream.

The dust cleared and She-Ra stood proud as ever holding a cannonball the size of her head in front of her chest.

It was over as soon as the enemies saw Adora. There was no way for their shots to cause any damage to Bright Moon troops when She-Ra was involved.

Their friends shouted and whooped at Adora, but Catra wasn't happy. This miracle had simply revealed to her how terrible things could have been. If Adora's high hadn't worn off to this point before the battle, she'd be gone. Adora shouldn't have even been touched by that cannonball - she would have already taken out the tanks as planned. The drug had made her forget.

When Adora transformed back to herself and looked to Catra, her smile faded.

"I shouldn't have told you about the stuff. It's clearly not good for us to use right now, when we have to be ready at any moment."

"Catra, calm down. We're not gonna over-use it. You told me about it as a way to relax, and that's how we've been using it. It'll be fine."

"Fine. I'm not taking anymore, though. I need a clear head." Catra walked out of the debrief room.

Adora's slow voice knocked around the walls of her brain. She felt as if Adora would come to regret this, but she wasn't about to admit she was wrong when she had been the one to introduce it to her.

Over the next few days, they didn't talk about it again. Things were normal. Adora was more attentive to Catra, but there was still a balance with work, and that's just what Catra envisioned.

Adora didn't take anymore of the psychedelic herb for a while, though Catra could tell she wanted to. She knew she thought about it at times, that she was just hesitant because of Catra's feelings about it. Catra did appreciate that.

Their battles were back to regular triumphant programming - Adora took out all the marks she was given with little trouble, and acquired zero injuries. The enemy was beginning to fail. Things were at their peak.

And then it was the week after, and Adora was again over-worked at the rebellion talk that morning. When she got back to their room, Catra could tell where she'd been after the meeting.

"Hi Catra," she murmured, grabbing the book Catra was reading out of her hands and placing it on the nightstand. "You look beauuuutiful today."

When Adora rested her head in Catra's lap and dozed off, Catra was conflicted. Despite the few words Adora said to her just now, she thought this must have been the highest Adora had ever gotten. She wondered how much she had taken; how much was left. Catra's mind began to picture a grey battlefield, splotched red, flashing green. She saw Adora herself, grinning at her ten metres away. And then, bang -

"-Catra! Wake up!"

Catra's eyes snapped open to see Adora's red-jacketed blur rushing around the room. Bow was standing over her and shouting, "Wake up!"

"I'm up! What's going on?"

"Surprise attack in the Whispering Woods literally right outside!"

Catra put on her boots and began to follow Bow out the door, but stopped. She turned and found Adora, grabbed her shoulders. "You cannot come. You're gonna get pulverised like this."

"I'm fine, Catra. I'm great. Let's go!" Adora sped past her and down the hall. Catra had no choice but to see what would happen.

Catra shuddered again. She stood at the window in the royal dining room with a blue blanket around her, watching smoke dissipate above the scorched woods. The sky was returning to its pink evening hue, but Catra still felt cold, jaw clenching, knees shaking.

She had still been there first, at her side, when she'd been hit. Catra saw the gun fire its shot straight at a blank She-Ra. She saw Adora reappear from the goddess form with a plume of dark red staining her front. She didn't know what was going through Adora's mind, but it was absent, spaced-out, away from the battle.

"She's up." Catra turned her head to look at Glimmer lingering in the grand doorway, looking small and hesitant. Catra kind of felt for her. If she had to approach someone's best friend after they'd just been downed on the battlefield, she'd be apprehensive too.

Catra followed the girl to the infirmary. Every bed was full, and Perfuma was rushing around with a tray of basic medical equipment balanced in her hand. When she saw Catra, she shrunk and furrowed her brow. She put down the tray and gestured towards the end of the room. Catra saw a grey boot on the floor, the red jacket hanging on the end of the bed, and then Adora waiting grimly on the mattress.

Adora peered up at her with a downturned head, and Catra did feel a note of pity. She also felt something turn in her gut at the sight of the thick bandages around Adora's middle, the faintest patch of red showing through the gauze.

"... she had so much of the stuff in her system, it could have been much worse. I've given her something which reverses the effects of it, and it seems to be working already. Otherwise she could deal with hormone imbalances and mental weirdness forever and ever..."

Catra looked down at Adora condemningly. "I'm here to take her back to her room."

Adora insisted on walking with no support aside from going up the stairs to their floor. Catra could hear her breaths, heavy and tight. When they got back to the room, Adora set herself up on the bed and Catra could sense eyes following her as she busied herself around the room. When she finally had nothing else to do, she turned. "You could have died. You heard P, right?"

Adora nodded. "I'm not taking that stuff anymore. For real this time."

"Isn't that what I said a week ago after you were nearly pulverised by a cannonball? Because your fucked up drug brain didn't see it coming?!" Catra gripped the end of the bed frame. She softened when she heard the silence after her yelling. "Don't you think you should have stopped back then, when I told you to?"

"Catra, you were the one who brought this whole 'relax' drug thing into my life. Yes, I should have stopped, I think it's a little hypocritical of you -" Adora stopped when Catra mumbled something. "What?"

"All I was ever doing was looking out for you." Catra sat at the end of the bed and crossed her legs, looking down into her lap.

"I know." Adora sat up from the backboard and shuffled closer with a grunt. "I know that. I'm sorry. We were... we were both in the wrong a little, right?"

Catra nodded.

Adora took her wringing hands into her own. "Why don't we just leave this behind, then?"

She looked Adora in the eye. Her beautiful, clear grey eyes. So beautiful. "Alright."

She closed the abysmal gap between them again, finally.

**Author's Note:**

> love u guys <3  
find me on tumblr @oh-no-momo and twitter @sharkbaites :)


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